Greta left the room on tiptoe. Old Matthew was still sitting over a dying fire, gently rocking the sleeping child. When Greta returned to the bedroom, Mercy called her, and said, very softly, "Let me hold your hand, Greta--may I say Greta?--there," and her fingers closed on Greta's with a convulsive grasp. The operation began. Mercy held her breath. She had the stubborn north-country blood in her. Once only a sigh escaped. There was a dead silence. In two or three minutes the doctor said, "Just another minute, and all will be over." At the next instant Greta felt her hand held with a grasp of iron. "Doctor, doctor, I can see you," cried Mercy, and her words came in gusts. "Be quiet," said the doctor in a stern voice. In half a minute more the linen bandages were being wrapped tightly over Mercy's eyes. "Doctor, dear doctor, let me see my boy!" cried Mercy. "Be quiet, I say," said the doctor again. "Dear doctor, my dear doctor, only one peep--one little peep. I saw your face--let me see my Ralphie's." "Not yet, it is not safe." "But only for a moment. Don't put the bandage on for one moment. Just think, doctor, I have never seen my boy; I've seen other people's children, but never once my own, own darling. Oh, dear doctor--" "You are exciting yourself. Listen to me: if you don't behave yourself now you may never see your child." "Yes, yes, I will behave myself; I will be very good. Only don't shut me up in darkness again until I see my boy. Greta, bring him to me. Listen, I hear his breathing. Go for my darling! The kind doctor won't be angry with you. Tell him that if I see my child it will cure me. I know it will." Greta's eyes were swimming in tears. "Rest quiet, Mercy. Everything may be lost if you disturb yourself now, my dear." The doctors were wrapping bandage over bandage, and fixing them firmly at the back of their patient's head. "Now listen again," said one of them: "This bandage must be kept over your eyes for a week." "A week--a whole week? Oh, doctor, you might as well say forever." "I say a week. And if you should ever remove it--" "Not for an instant? Not raise it a very little?" "If you ever remove it for an instant, or raise it ever so little, you will assuredly lose your sight forever. Remember that." "Oh, doctor, it is terrible. Why did you not tell me so before? Oh this is worse than blindness! Think of the temptation, and I have never seen my boy!" The doctor had fixed the bandage, and his voice was less stern, but no less resolute. "You must obey me," he said; "I will come again this day week, and then you shall see your child, and your father, and this young lady, and everybody. But mind, if you don't obey me, you will never see anything. You will have one glance of your little boy, and then be blind forever, or perhaps--yes, perhaps _die_." Mercy lay quiet for a moment. Then she said, in a low voice: